


Ilya & Jhend

by Nebulad



Series: Witch Doctor [5]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Domestic, F/M, Fluff, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-03 21:13:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12154917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nebulad/pseuds/Nebulad
Summary: “Ilya,” Jhend tried, out of dead silence. The responding snort of delight didn’t sound promising.“Nope,” he confirmed.“Am I close?”“No but you’re very pretty so I forgive you.”





	Ilya & Jhend

“Ilya,” Jhend tried, out of dead silence. The responding snort of delight didn’t sound promising.

“Nope,” he confirmed.

“Am I close?”

“No but you’re very pretty so I forgive you.”

“Well how is it supposed to sound?”

“ _Ilya.”_ The way _he_ said it made sense, but it required their tongue to be in an entirely different place when they said it. That was _doable,_ but it sounded so much more natural coming from him than they’d ever been able to replicate with their self-conscious effort.

“Ily— no that was already worse than the first time.” They leaned their head on his shoulder, back to chest with him in their room (the jury was still out on whether or not it was literally where he slept). “Ilya Devorak,” they tried again, and that wasn’t so bad.

“Better on the first name, try to give the vowels a little less love in the last.” They frowned, trying to picture how to spell _Devorak_ in their head. The jumble of consonants it became without the vowels definitely didn’t sound right, but neither did _loving_ the vowels less.

“That’s how Nadia says it,” they said by way of explanation. They’d never actually heard _him_ say his name before, although if his first name was anything to go by he could’ve said it a thousand times and they’d still be tripping over it.

“And now you know how I walk freely among the people; they just haven’t realised that _Devorak—”_ the way he said it, with the accent and all, sounded so _natural_ and yet fucking _impossible_ so they just let it sit without trying to imitate it, “...and Devorak—” the flat Vesuvian accent he gave that one made them laugh, “are the same doctor.”

“Foolproof,” they agreed, winding their fingers through his on their stomach. He had that mark of the back of his hand that they were afraid to ask about; some things it was just difficult to phrase politely. _So… the eye? How’d that happen? The tattoo? Related to the murder, or no?_ Things had been so… _good_ lately, and the Raven was such a refuge— temporary although that arrangement was— they were almost hesitant to broach any of the obvious subjects with him.

“What about _Jhend?”_ he asked.

“You’re saying it right.” He said it better than everyone else did, honestly, not because he was more correct but because he was Julian and their stomach flipped every time he addressed them directly.

He nodded. “I know that; you told me how to when I finally got around to asking what it was. No surname?”

They shook their head. “My mother brought me to the city when I was very little, because we’d been disowned by her family. Making a new name up seemed like a lot of work when it wasn’t strictly necessary.”

“Why the exile?” They laughed breathily as if he were in on the cosmic joke that was the entire clusterfuck of ma’s family, letting their eyes slip close. They didn’t talk very much about any of the gory details, mostly because it used to make their mother uncomfortable before she took to travelling; habit kept them quiet around strangers, but did Julian still count as one in his current position? He was an unfairly cosy person, considering how frightened they’d been of him when they first met; how could they have known how starved for tenderness the murderous doctor was?

Lucky for him, their cup runneth over in affection.

To answer his question, they let a little glamour fire crawl from their fingertips to their wrists, feeling rather than seeing as it licked lazily up to their elbows. He jerked himself away on instinct, but seemed properly embarrassed when they laughed, startled by his outburst. They forgot what it looked like when they cast something like fire without warning. “Witch, remember? I had a gift, and even if I didn’t know how to use it I knew how to hide it even less.”

He chewed on that for a heartbeat, his brow furrowing as he stewed on their chaotic childhood. To demonstrate that the magic wasn’t harmful— a parlour trick more than anything at all useful— they reached out for his hand, which he gave so thoughtlessly that it nearly stole their breath. They let the little golden fire roam over him as well, tracing the lines of his palm and trying not to think too hard lest they divine something from the gesture. “What a stupid thing to blame a child for,” he muttered, frowning distantly.

“Not everyone is so brave as you,” they said, only half teasing. He was testing the fire, trying to guess at the physical consistency. Magic was will made manifest, though; technically it could be whatever he wanted, or to keep things simple and easy, whatever _they_ wanted. Learning that reality was flexible was frequently too much for people not raised to do so; hence the whole _witch_ thing.

“There isn’t another person in the world like you, and if they were smart they’d appreciate it,” he sniffed, satisfied by whatever he found in the flame. He brought their palm to his mouth, kissing the visible source of their gift. They would’ve guessed it was closer to their brain than their hand, but he was a little too familiar with the organ to comfortably correct him on it.

“Don’t be so sweet… Ilya?” they tried again. He grinned, lips still pressed to their hand. “Was I closer?”

“Goodness no.” He pulled them over on his chest, playfully pressing kisses to their nose and cheeks while they snickered. “But you’re still very pretty, so I’ll keep forgiving you.”

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing blog is here](http://nebulaad.tumblr.com) and [my commission post](nebulaad.tumblr.com/post/162182264019/writing-commissions) lives there.
> 
> This is kind of a sacrifice because I want the update to come tomorrow. If it happens then it will confirm that I am So Powerful, and if not then what the fuck ever. Did yall see the new trailer? Woof.


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